Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Tiramisu, pronounced as 'ti-ra-mee-su' the very famous classic Italian dessert is made of savioardi/lady's fingers/ sponge fingers dabbed in espresso or strong coffee and alcohol mixture traditionally and mascarpone cream mixture and then sprinkled with cocoa on top. However I have made certain variations from the traditional one avoiding alcohol and using chocolate cake along with sponge fingers. I made it for the Iftar party last weekend and I got a big thumbs-up for this dessert.

Before talking about Iftar party and Iftar, I will give a brief description about Ramadan and what Iftar is. Ramadan is the 9th Month in the Arabic Calendar where all Muslims are obliged to refrain from food and drinks from dawn till dusk and this is called fasting. At dawn we have a light meal called Seher (Pre-dawn meal) and don’t eat or drink the whole day. At dusk we break our fast with dates or water initially and carry on with some snacks. This breaking of fast at dusk is called Iftar. After dusk we are allowed to eat anything until the dawn.

I find Iftar back home quite festive where you have friends and relatives coming over and having food and prayers together. We also prepare different kinds of snacks and meals and share them with others in the neighbourhood to show our love and compassion.

On the first day of the following month, after sighting another new moon we celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr where everyone takes a bath, put on new clothes and go to mosques early in the morning to perform communal prayer. After that, we have friends and relatives coming over and having feast. It’s a great celebration.

Talking about Tiramisu, I made certain changes from the traditonal recipe this time. Instead of using savioardi I experimented with a layer of chocolate cake in the bottom layer and sprinkled the coffee all over the chocolate cake rather than dipping it in coffee. I just used chocolate cake because I had made chocolate cake the very previous day and had quite lot of it. However it was super delicious, I should say. Below here is the original recipe that I have that uses only saviordi and not cake. but in the picture you can see the bottom layer is cake.

Preparation:
1. Prepare 2 cups of coffee by adding boiling water to 2 tbs of coffee+2 tbs of sugar. Keep it aside.
2. Separate egg whites and yolks.
3. In a glass bowl, take egg yolks and add in sugar beat well with the egg beater until you get creamy and pale yellow mixture (zabaglione pronounced as sabayon).
4. Place another vessel on the stove and add hot but not boiling water and set it on low-medium flame. Place the glass bowl with egg yolk and sugar mixture (zabaglione) over the simmering water and whisk well for around ten minutes until the mixture gets thick. Add vanilla essence to this and keep it aside to cool.
N.B: It is important to note that the bowl containing zabaglione should not come in contact with the water underneath since this will curdle the egg and get a grainy mixture. Also it is important not to use a metal bowl for preparing zabaglione since the vessel gets heated up quickly and again the egg will get curdled.
5. Whip the Cream until peaks form and keep it aside. Don’t whip it for too long because it will start forming into butter. You can use wire whisk or egg beater for this.
6. Mix the mascarpone cheese in this whipped cream and mix well until no lumps appear. Add the cooled zabaglione to this and mix well.
7. Whip the egg whites until peaks form and fold into the cheese and cream mixture to keep it light and airy. Dont over mix it..
8. Now take a large clear glass dish, just dip the sponge fingers in the coffee and layer them side by side until you cover the bottom of the dish with the sponge fingers dipped in coffee. Don’t keep the sponge fingers in coffee for long time since they tend to absorb liquid too quickly. Just dab both sides in coffee and that should be more than enough.
9.Pour half of the cheese cream mixture over this lady’s fingers and again layer another layer of savoiardi dipped in coffee over this cream mixture and tip over the rest of cream mixture.

10. Cover and Refrigerate for minimum of 2 hours.

11.Just before serving,dust with cocoa by passing it through sieve or if you want to make it more rich, add some chocolate shavings....hmmmm..yummy!

zeb, wen i was un auh, i bought lady fingers from co-op in madinat zayed shopping centre. U can find it in the crisp/cookie rack in the corner :D. Mascarpone u will get from lulu hypermarket. i saw it only there.But it is so expensive there. its 30 dhs for 250gms, last nov. try making half the quantity.wen i make for me i make half of it.Increase sugar if u like more sweetness,this sweetness is perfect for me, but my dad always wanted more sugar. n cream, i used Elmea double cream, but u can use puck or any double cream. u get elmea in lulu hyper as well, n again that was 12dhs for 284mls wen i saw!!hope that helps. If you want the dessert to be a set, u can melt 3 tsp of gelatine in 2 tbs of water and add it to the mixture at the end.i sometimes do that...else it will be a bit like custard texture.try it out....its a great one.thx for stopping by,have a nice day.

Yeah....I made the tiramisu with your recipe yesterday and it was so good....My husband and his family really liked it and of course my kids did, too. The recipe was very helpful. And today i tried to make it with gelatine but it ended up with the lumps. I didn't know why. And if i want the tiramisu firmer, i should not use the egg white, right? Can you explain for me?Thanks alot.... Tiramisu's fan

Hi Tiramisu fan,Thanks alot for the feedback. I am glad u n family liked it. Regarding addding gelatine, melt gelatine until it is completely dissolved. You can melt gelatine in a bowl by adding water and placing that bowl on top of simmering water until u get clear solution. Dont boil the gelatine for long as it will lose its setting property. U can then strain gelatine before adding to the dessert. Sometimes You may find lumps when you dont strain gelatine.I guess thats what happened in ur case. Dont omit egg whites, that will make the tiramisu really dense. Hope this helps...BTW, r u Zeb?...or do i know you?...

Hi nitha,this amount makes a huge batch. I think it should serve over 12 people definitely..Once i made it for a party and it served 12 people with most of them having second helping. 8x8 pan will be small for this i used a large rectangle deep dish which was around 13*9 that can hold 2 litres. Hope this helps.love,shabs.

Hi Anon, you would need to make a chocolate sponge cake if u want chocolate cake in thebottom. You can use the cake recipe in the black forest. Thats a very good chocolate sponge cake. Else you can use regular sponge.

Hi, This is in reply to someone who asked me to make for 5 people. You can halve the recipe exactly and follow the recipe/ Serve in small quantities. 2tbsp of instant coffee added to boiling water to make coffee..That is what i meant...Just plain black coffee, it should be quite strong.

Hi, This is in reply to someone who asked me to make for 5 people. You can halve the recipe exactly and follow the recipe/ Serve in small quantities. 2tbsp of instant coffee added to boiling water to make coffee..That is what i meant...Just plain black coffee, it should be quite strong.

Hi! Your recipe seems great! I have a concern about putting uncooked egg whites into the dessert (going to have kids eating this too). I wonder if you omit this part how it would affect the recipe? Taste wise should be ok. But maybe the cream and cheese mixture will be less fluffy? Ever tried it? Thanks for posting!

Hi, thanks for stopping by. I have always prepared tiramisu usid raw eggs and I have also fed my little one when he was as young as 2 years. But if you are concerened, you could whip the eggs placing it on a bowl of simmering water so that it is not completely uncooked, or else, you can avoid egg whites and add more cream to compat that volume. Omitting egg whites might take off that airy feeling of the dessert, but it will be still creamy and light if you use cream that is softly whipped than whipped to stiff peaks. Hope this helps.